Could Roberts be another Souter after several revealations after sitting on his ass being CJ

[Woody Woodpecker]

or am I reading this all wrong?

[valerief]

1. I'm sure he's an asshole and his ruling will open the door to fuck us over

with other laws.

He's one of THEM. We're just insects to him.

[permatex]

2. Wouldn't that be sweet?

But I'm withholding any excitement until I see a few more decisions. I think he's going to come down on the side of gay rights and hopefully it will flow from there.

[BeyondGeography]

3. Nope

He's very political. This ruling was a hedge against future RW incursions. Still early in the ballgame from his POV, too early to throw out ACA, which would have permanently typecast him and his Court as overreaching reactionaries. They are, but he can use this ruling to legitimize other forms of democratic manslaughter as they come down the pike.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. I don't think he'll be another Souter, or another Earl Warren,

but it does appear that he is holding to the judicial philosophy he espoused at his confirmation hearing - which is that the court should not act as a political body and acts of Congress should not be rendered void for partisan reasons. I suspect he had come to realize that the court was being viewed as biased and political, and he didn't want to preside over an institution that was acting contrary to his philosophy of judicial restraint. So what he did in the ACA case was uphold its constitutionality on pretty narrow and technical grounds - which was fine. It may be that he will try to rein in the more ridiculously extreme members, those being Fat Tony Scalia and his vestigial tail,* Silent Clarence Thomas.

*Metaphor courtesy of The Rude Pundit

[Voice for Peace]

5. John Dean thinks he's smart & more focused on the law than the politics

perhaps the reaction from the republican base has him
re-thinking his political affiliations as well.